Urban Planner/Urban Designer

Location: San Diego

Kittelson & Associates has a current opening for a early career urban planner/urban designer in our growing team of place-makers in San Diego.

Would you like to be at the forefront of guiding transportation policies and decision-makers to support and sustain livable communities? Would you like to leverage your urban design skills to communicate and influence decisions that drive equitable growth patterns and help nurture thriving neighborhoods and cities?

Our firm is committed to developing thoughtful and creative transportation solutions that directly apply to real-world problems, with the goal of improving the performance of transportation systems and equitably serving all members of a community.

Position Summary

We are looking for an entry level professional with 0 to 4 years of experience, and a clear passion for leveraging transportation to plan, design, and build livable communities, to join our team in San Diego, California. As an early-career urban planner / designer, you will contribute to the planning, analyses, and development of innovate design concepts for a variety of projects, including: quick build and slow streets projects, safety studies, corridor and community wide master planning, active transportation plans, and many other projects. In this role you will:

• Perform geospatial (GIS) analysis and visualization for a range of geographies.
• Perform complex analysis in Excel or other tools to identify data trends.
• Develop planning reports on existing transportation, health, and socioeconomic conditions.
• Develop concept drawings in CAD, Illustrator, and/or other software.
• Have the ability to communicate complex data analyses with meaningful visualizations to the masses.
• Assist in community meetings, workshops, presentations, and public engagement meetings.
• Assist in preparing design documentation including master plan reports, design guidelines, and client-ready presentation materials.

You have an opportunity to manage your own career path while receiving mentoring and support as you learn and apply these responsibilities. Through Kittelson’s “One Firm, Many Locations” approach, you will work collaboratively with the team in San Diego while also having the opportunity to work on projects with our other offices nationwide.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 0-4 years experience.
• A self-starter with a strong desire to chart your own path and think outside the box to work with teams to provide forward thinking, innovative, and context sensitive solutions.
• Critical thinking skills that incorporate and blend innovative ideas in land use, landscape architecture, urban design, and planning and designing multimodal transportation solutions.
• Relevant degree in urban design, urban planning, landscape architecture, architecture, and/or civil engineering with a focus in urban transportation planning.
• Excellent verbal, written, and graphical/visualization storytelling skills to convey ideas to community members, elected officials, decision-makers, and technical engineering staff.
• Excitement for learning new, complex skills and experience with self-learning software and processes.

Preferred Additional Qualifications

• Experience facilitating community workshops and design charrettes.
• Knowledge of additional AutoCAD, advanced GIS operations, and Adobe Photoshop.
• Knowledge of SketchUp and/or other 3D graphics software.
• AICP or RLA Certification.

Software Familiarity

While much of this can be learned on the job, it would be beneficial to have experience with or knowledge of:

• Adobe Creative Suite (particularly Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop)
• Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams)
• AutoCAD
• ArcGIS Pro
• SketchUp, Rhino, or other 3D graphics software is a plus.

Preferred Soft Skills

• An entrepreneurial and consulting spirit.
• Ability to work independently, learn fast, and balance multiple projects.
• Natural teaching and mentoring ability.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build trust-based relationships.
• Ability to think on your feet with strong communication skills.

Please be prepared to share work samples showcasing your urban design and / or transportation planning experience, including an explanation of your role on the project. Relevant experience could include coursework, projects undertaken during internships or full-time employment, and/or passion projects.

Compensation and Benefits

This position offers a competitive salary and benefits that include comprehensive employer-paid health insurance, a generous and flexible PTO program (in addition to parental leave), an outstanding retirement program, and a culture that seeks and values diversity and inclusion.

Base salary plus retirement range for this position (place in range determined by candidate’s experience): $85,000-110,000.

We also recognize the performance of all staff through a performance bonus program based upon each individual’s contributions to key areas that lead to the achievement of our collective goals.